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Attorney General Lockyer and Superintendent of Public Instruction O'Connell Award School Community Policing Partnership Grants

$10.7 Million Awarded to Local Education Agencies to Prevent School Violence

Thursday, June 17, 2004

Contact: (415) 703-5837, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

(SACRAMENTO) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced $10.7 million in grants have been awarded to 34 school districts and county offices of education for programs that partner schools with law enforcement, health and community organizations to deal with school crime and safety issues.

Established in 1998, the School Community Policing Partnership (SCPP) allows the Attorney General, in conjunction with the California Department of Education, to offer grants of up to $325,000 to be spent over three years to combat school violence. This year, 34 school districts and county offices received the grants.

"These grants provide much-needed resources to school districts and education offices to work with law enforcement and community organizations to provide campus policing, mentoring and tutoring services, extra-curricular activities, and drug and violence intervention and prevention programs," Lockyer said. "Working together, law enforcement, educators and the community can maintain safe schools and productive environments for our children."

"Students need to feel safe in order to focus on learning," O'Connell said. "These grants will help our school sites improve their learning environments through partnerships with law enforcement agencies in their communities."

This year, a total of 186 agencies applied for the grants, up from the 144 applications received last year. Through a thorough review and scoring process, 10 review teams composed of school safety professionals from law enforcement, education and community organizations read and scored the applications during a three-day period in April. The applicants were evaluated on two basic criteria: the school community's commitment to forming and sustaining a collaborative partnership, and its demonstration of need, which was based on school and community crime data and statistics measuring drug and alcohol use and rates of discipline, attendance, truancy and expulsion.

The SCPP requires the grants to represent schools in rural, urban and suburban areas throughout California. This year, the grants were awarded to 16 suburban, 10 rural and 8 urban school districts or education offices. Eight were in Northern California, five were in Central California and 21 were in Southern California.

Of the 34 grantees, 12 had previously been awarded SCPP grants that the review teams deemed worthy of refunding. Those programs are: